valorous
chieftains. In that horror of her dream she stood up suddenly, and thrust
forth her hands as to avert an evil, and advanced a step; and with the
act her dream was cloven and she awoke, and lo! it was sunrise; and where
had been two warriors of the Beni-Asser, were now five, and besides her
own steed five others, one the steed of Ruark, and Ruark with them that
watched over her: pale was the visage of the Chief. Ruark eyed Bhanavar,
and signalled to his followers, and they, when they had lifted the damsel
to her steed and placed her in their front, mounted likewise, and
flourished their lances with cries, and jerked their heels to the flanks
of their steeds, and stretched forward till their beards were mixed with
the tossing manes, and the dust rose after them crimson in the sun. So
they coursed away, speeding behind their Chief and Bhanavar; sweet were
the desert herbs under their crushing hooves! Ere the shadow of the
acacia measured less than its height they came upon a spring of silver
water, and Ruark leaped from his steed, and Bhanavar from hers, and they
performed their ablutions by that spring, and ate and drank, and watered
their steeds. While they were there Bhanavar lifted her eyes to Ruark,
and said, 'Whither takest thou me, O my Chief?'

His brow was stern, and he answered, 'Surely to the dwelling of thy
tribe.'

Then she wept, and pulled her veil close, murmuring, ''Tis well!'

They spake no further, and pursued their journey toward the mountains and
across the desert that was as a sea asleep in the blazing heat, and the
sun till his setting threw no shade upon the sands bigger than what was
broad above them. By the beams of the growing moon they entered the first
gorge of the mountains. Here they relaxed the swiftness of their pace,
picking their way over broken rocks and stunted shrubs, and the mesh of
spotted creeping plants; all around them in shadow a freshness of noisy
rivulets and cool scents of flowers, asphodel and rose blooming in plots
from the crevices of the crags. These, as the troop advanced, wound and
widened, gradually receding, and their summits, which were silver in the
moonlight, took in the distance a robe of purple, and the sides of the
mountains were rounded away in purple beyond a space of emerald pasture.
Now, Ruark beheld the heaviness of Bhanavar, and that she drooped in her
seat, and he halted her by a cave at the foot of the mountains, browed
with white broom. Before